Kaua‘i County officials have joined forces with five social service agencies and churches to develop the island’s first-ever network of residential treatment and transitional centers to help Kauaians with their recovery from alcoholism and drug abuses. At a news conference
Kaua‘i County officials have joined forces with five social service agencies and churches to develop the island’s first-ever network of residential treatment and transitional centers to help Kauaians with their recovery from alcoholism and drug abuses.
At a news conference with the groups at the Lihu‘e Civic Center Friday, Mayor Bryan Baptiste said he foresees the opening of five or more such faculties from the North Shore to West Kaua‘i. Such facilities could be opened in a year.
Representatives from Hale Opio Kaua‘i Inc., the YWCA, Calvary Chapel Kauai, Aloha Church, Kaua‘i Economic Opportunity, the Maui Youth & Family Services Inc. and Hina Mauka pledged to work with Baptiste to establish the network system.
If established, the system could, in future years, help hundreds of Kaua‘i adults and youths recover from substance abuse, and provide a means of support for the families of those seeking help.
The proposed facilities are only on paper now, but the various groups are attempting to secure county permits or state approval to build and operate the facilities, group members and the mayor told reporters.
“Some are in their infancy stages, and some (groups) have ideas as to what they want to do,” Baptiste said.
The network is but one piece of the Kaua‘i Community Drug Response Plan, a five-year undertaking by the county and community organizations to reduce alcohol and drug use on Kaua‘i, Baptiste said.
The plan has been endorsed by Baptiste and supported in part with county funding.
While residential treatment and transitional centers exist on other islands, no such facilities have been built on Kaua‘i partly because of the “NIMBY (Not in My Backyard Syndrome), said Roy Nishida, the county’s anti-drug coordinator.
That attitude has to be changed if the network system is to work, said Mary Lou Barela, executive director of Hale Opio. Her organization has cared for at-risk youths for 30 years on Kaua‘i. “The time has come,” Barela said of the need for people to allow residential-drug treatment or transitional faculties in their neighborhoods.
Islandwide trend
In a statement, Baptiste empathized that substance abuse “knows no geographical boundaries, and said he believes it is the responsibility of the “entire Kaua‘i community to help resolve the dreaded epidemic of drug abuse on the island.”
“We want to spread out the responsibilities geographically…to win this war against drugs,” Baptiste said.
Mardi L. Maione, a certified substance counselor for Hina Mauka, which offers outreach service from its office in Lihu‘e, said people shouldn’t fret about having such facilities in their neighborhoods.
“People are not using drugs in the facilities while they are going through treatment. They also are not associating with criminal elements,” Maione said. “(During treatment) they are wonderful, loving and creative people. And we’re going to ease them back into society.”
Group representatives announced forthcoming plans for the proposed network system:
- Kaua‘i County officials, Baptiste said, plan to build a facility for adolescents at the former Kaua‘i Humane Society site in Hanapepe. The project would involve the use of three of seven portable buildings now used to house the Kaua‘i County Prosecutor’s Office and the Kaua‘i County Housing Agency.
The prosecutor’s office is planned to be moved to the police station off Kapule Highway, and the housing agency is anticipated to be relocated to a renovated annex building at the Lihu‘e Civic Center.
Hale Opio plan
If the drug-treatment center opens, Hale Opio or Maui Youth may be interested in operating it, Baptiste said.
- Barela said her group had been approached in the past “to do something” at the former Kauai Humane Society operation in Hanapepe.
She said her organization plans to hire a consultant to look into the feasibility of operating the facility.
If the project has merit and becomes operational, Barela said her group may be working with the operators of the Bobby Benson Center to manage the facility.
The Bobby Benson Center is a non-profit, private corporation owned by the Bobby Benson Foundation. The goal of the center, which is located on the North Shore of O‘ahu, is to return teens to school and to their communities with skills to remain free from alcohol and drug use. At this point, the Hale Opio board is eager to get the project going, Barela said.
“The board is anxious to get a plan together, and wants a plan in place and pieces lined up … have a plan for all possibilities,” Barela said. “We hope to sustain this for all time to come.”
One challenge that may arise is finding sufficient staffing, as the training and certification of employees can be arduous, Barela said.
- Catherine Myers, a program director for Maui Youth, and Daryl Selman, chief operations officer for Maui youth, said their organization’s involvement in one of the proposed residential centers can help turn people’s lives around.
The organization’s goal is to help young men and women to become self-sufficient and productive members of society, Myers and Selman said.
Selman said 238 youths have gone through one program since 1999, including 31 youths from Kaua‘i.
She said the program had a 67 percent success rate in 2003 for youths who reported being “clean” within six months after leaving the program.
In order for the network program on Kaua‘i to work, groups must work collaboratively, Myers said. “The big part is keeping Kaua‘i kids on Kaua‘i,” she added.
Maui Youth, with executive offices in Paia, Maui, has been helping families in Hawai‘i since 1978, according to the group’s Web site. For more information on the group, please go to www.myfs.org.
Lester Chang, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang @ pulitzer.net
This two-part report continues in the Monday, June 28 edition of The Garden Island
